Tougher Than the Rest

Figures. Tell me, is Clear Channel worth anything at all? Thank goodness CC didn't exist in the late 60s - think of who you WOULDN'T hear on the radio. I am interested, however, in checking out the sites below the article and see how "Magic" is being reviewed around the nation.

Glad to hear Lefty digs most of the new album after seeing the show. The songs from the new album that really stand out:

Radio Nowhere - blazing opener, arpeggiated guitar with driving rock beats and chorus that isn't sing-songy but an outright demand for change.

Gypsy Biker - while I still don't find myself moved by the song and its structure, the part that really kills is the duel between Bruce and Little Steven at the end. Last time the boys went head to head like that since the Darkness tour nearly thirty years ago.

Last To Die - powerful anti-war anthem that the band drives with the intensity of "Because the Night" with some killer sax playing by the Big Man.

Now, as much as I dig the new album, there are some songs that don't quite hold up live, for whatever reasons:

Magic - tough to be placed in such a rocking set; a "Streets of Philadelphia"-type song that brings the energy to a different place, one that I didn't necessarily agree with.

Girls With Their Summer Clothes - the song's introduction misses something and only strikes the indifferent audience when the first chorus comes around. Don't get me wrong, this is more of the fault of the concert-goers and not the song as people are singing their heads off by the end of the song. By the time Bruce plays this song in the set, the "I paid $100, I better be getting something old" crowd is growing restless. The song worked really well followed by "Thunder Road" with the reverse story line. This song would probably receive greater applause if the second set was another three or four songs longer.

Now, the question of the summer tour...what stays, what goes. The biggest shocker is the Devils and Dust songs that didn't make it into the setlist. In 1984, the band essentially toured two albums, "U.S.A." and Nebraska, from two years' prior. Much of the show consisted of both albums and both were well-received. I thought that at least two or three songs would have worked their way into the setlist, "Long Time Comin'" and "Maria's Bed" for sure.

Just checked it out. Well worth it. Westmont? Man, I wonder if I knew him when I was in school.

Blowin' 'Em All Out Of Their Seats

Two nights, equally special, equally amazing and two for the books:

10/25
Radio Nowhere
The Ties That Bind
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Adam Raised a Cain
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Town Called Heartbreak
Backstreets
Your Own Worst Enemy
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
American Land

10/26
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Two Hearts
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Tunnel of Love
Racing in the Street
Working on the Highway
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Thundercrack
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
American Land

I'll spare you the blow-by-blow. Thursday's show was packed full of energy of returning to the Bay Area for the first time since '03. Highlights were Girls AND Thunder Road, Adam, Enemy and of course, Backstreets. I sat by myself was able to enjoy a show where I could experience each of the songs as I wished to, meaning no one else to worry being in my way and I out of everyone's hair. So many of the songs have personal meaning and importance that they don't have a collective definition. Backstreets, without saying, truly leveled me. This being THE song that grabbed me in 1995 and shook me emotionally like no other song had done prior, hearing it live for the first time was like experiencing the last twelve years of my life in seven minutes. Just a killer. I'll save my personal reactions for a more private time. I walked out of the arena on Thursday night knowing that if I never caught the band again, I would be able to say that I saw them absolutely on fire.
Luckily, I had floor seats to the Friday show. Chris and I left years before the show began and were denied entry into the pit; however, we ended up right against the rail separating the pit from the steerage class. That still placed us, in reality, in the equivalent of about the tenth or twelfth row had seats been on the floor. Friday night, however, was a completely different experience. I'll share two points just tonight - the incredible change-up in the setlist (three tour debuts including Racing and three rarities - Thundercrack) and the crowd that sucked. While the band played to an appreciative crowd both nights, what I truly saw was the long-term-but-casual fan who's last purchase of a Bruce album was Tunnel of Love (quickly sold to the record store because it lacked the U.S.A. anthems. The new stuff was met with perfunctory applause and the rarities were met with cluelessness. A couple of cases in point: being in the pit, I was surrounded by people asking the titles of songs, a lack of singing and even people making fun of me when I cheered to some of the chesnuts of the evening. When Bruce played Thundercrack, people were absolutely silent; even when the die-hards chanted the backing chorus of the intro, Bruce castigated the crowd, saying, "That was terrible! Don't fuck it up!" People wanted "the old stuff", like my neighbor wanted. So, Bruce plays Thundercrack, a song LAST played by the band in mid-1974, only to be replaced by Rosalita. They wanted "old" but not that old. Then, people complained about the length of the show. The band nailed two hours and fifteen minutes of solid music. Now, I'm the first to wish for a three hour show like the Pac Bell show yet what I don't need is a three hour show with a swoon in energy in both the first and second set with a song that includes a twenty-minute rant for a band intro. Criticism from the Reunion and Rising tours was well-placed: the Tenth Avenue or Mary's Place songs took so much energy out of the set and rambled for so long; hard cores complained that they were show killers. Now they're gone and we're complaining about short shows. Welp, throw them back in the mix and what do you have? A three hour show with a massive buzz killer. I also love the collective faded memory that many a concert-goer, including both my neighbor ans San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Joel Selvin, have about the Boss in his heyday: the four-hour show. Time really does play with one's memory; I remember hearing my first-ever concert of U2 in 1987 on a bootleg and was stunned just how different it was from my memory. I would have sworn in court that my memory was accurate and yet the tape doesn't lie. One of my colleagues years ago claimed to see a Day On the Green show from '77 or '78 with the Who and Grateful Dead and Jerry and the boys played for SEVEN hours. Seven hours? SEVEN HOURS? Anywho, the famed four-hour Bruce shows were few and far between; probably less than twenty exist in the band's entire career. The longest show was four and a half, which I have in my possession, the famed 12/31/80 New Year's Eve show. A special gig, not the run-of-the-mill show from one's memory. Nowadays, who in the heck would want to catch a four hour show? The last four-hour performance I caught from a band was Gov't Mule and the middle hour with a guest slot by the Dead was so painful that my friends and I left. Maybe I'm old, maybe I'm cynical. Maybe I was hoping to be surrounded by people who feel exactly like I do about the artist. Maybe I'm unrealistic about why people go and see their favorite artists. Do we see them hoping for enlightenment in the contemporary age of uncertainty and conflict or do we hope to be delivered to a time, real or imaginary, where the feelings and memories that can't be unfalsified, make us feel young, safe, innocent and whole again? What a lot of people wanted on Friday night was Glory Days; what the band gave us was the Land of Hope and Dreams.

More to come...

Two Faces

Mary, relax; tonight's game was awesome. The Sox routed the Rockies 13-1 tonight in a game that could have ended after the first inning. Beckett was hot, the rain came down and the NL team just couldn't get its bats going.

Gotta dig this. Friends Steve and Chris talked about the "Santorum"; my brother, a former Philly resident, blanched every time this man appeared in the news and now this!!! Regardless of my own political affiliations or ideologies, this new hire completely shoots down the Philly Inquirer's reputation as a major market paper if it still had one. Two weeks ago, its entertainment section called Springsteen a "hack for the Democratic Party" and yet last time I checked, Republicans from the state of Pennsylvania were wracked with scandal and posed as national embarrassments. Rick, you're probably a nice guy but your statements during the beginning of the Iraq debacle and the 2004 election showed you to be nothing but a myopic-viewed fear monger, a demagogue or something worse. You choose, pal.

"When Presidents Lie" is a detailed and thorough read, one that will give its readers a sense of post-war politics and policy and, while not enriching the history major's knowledge of four major eras, help expand one's perspective of each. I will be teaching history differently in my AP class thanks to this.

Money for the Iraq debacle - another $46 billion. Money for children to see a doctor: _______. Keep workin' on that legacy, W.

Off to the Oakland Coliseum tomorrow night. All signs are go, all lights are green. Start with Radio Nowhere and end with American Land and hopefully a few surprises in between.

Reason To Believe

My mother-in-law's surgery went as good as expected. The doctor feels confident and sure. Let's hope that this simply was a "procedure". Of course, we're not out of the woods but then again, I could get hit by a car on the way to the Oakland Coliseum. A cruel irony.

Tomorrow night in Bean Town: I'm not calling anything but momentum's behind the Sox. Hopefully Beckett's hot tomorrow night.

Get to wear my Converse tomorrow for Homecoming week. I will miss Friday which will be a big disappointment. I still love the buzz of Homecoming Week. Maybe I can take my children to the rally? My oldest sure would love it. Hoping my wife may take them to the parade, if anything else.

How much would you pay to see the reunited Led Zeppelin hit colisems next summer? Try adding a zero to any number and that's probably what you'll have to in order to see them. I think I'll be passing. Caught Page and Plant a decade ago and loved it. Didn't have to give up a loved one in order to do it.

The big conundrum for hard-cores - do you want the encore to start off with the new and amazing Girls In Their Summer Clothes or Thunder Road (which the former is the modern version of)? Both are incredible for their own reasons; maybe one the first night and the other the second? :)

It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive

Last week, my wife's mother was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her intestinal tract. Surgery is Tuesday morning at nine o'clock. Prayers, thoughts, wishes, chants, vibes and everything that we may think can work would be appreciated.

I normally don't blog about personal issues but this one is is dear to my family and me.

My brother's city is on fire as is seemingly all of southern California. His school has been closed for the remainder of the week. The Murph has become a homeless or refuge shelter for thousands of residents of the city whose homes are within risk. While they're safe, it's imaginable that many of his colleagues' and students' homes are not.

I received a surprise visit this afternoon from two great former students. One is wanting to enter the teaching profession and is an amazing young scholar. Another is a marine who has already served two tours in Iraq and will be commissioned to Afghanistan in June. This young man told me that "most of Iraq" is safe and secure, that he felt safe walking down the street at night in many provinces of the nation. Then, he mentioned, there's Baghdad. He then wants to study environmental science at UCSB (go Gauchos). It was a fine day to be a teacher. Not every visit will go as well as these two but I wish they both knew just how proud I am of them.

My father is in the Washington, D.C. vicinity this week. As part of the League of Mayors in northern California, he is attending a conference held by the Department of Homeland Security. He can't tell me where he is because he didn't know where he would be as it is confidential. One never knows when terrorists would strike the mayor of a city of 45,000.

The Boston Red Sox surely have the wind at their backs. What a series. Mary should sleep well; by Wednesday, they're going to be tough against the Rockies. I'll be pulling for the AL. During the first inning of game six, I actually made my baby son scream in fear as I terrified him rooting that amazing grand slam that essentially determined the remainder of the series. He'll learn; he'll turn a year old during opening of next season and his aunt and uncle gave him an A's jersey. He'll look awesome in it.

$330 million daily in Iraq. We can't guarantee our children with adequate health care but we can build military bases in a foreign nation for the sake of locking down resources. This administration will Iran before this summer and possibly Syria by the same time. Democrats can't afford to look "weak" on defense and therefore will support the Bush Administration's actions in order to simply win the presidential election. Hillary will most likely receive the nod as a middle-of-the-road Democrat who won't likely create great change in the direction our nation is heading.

Three days away and my stomach's already in knots. The band played Backstreets last night in Chicago which nearly eliminates the chances they'll play it again in Oakland. However, the band debuted Thunder Road in the Girls In Their Summer Clothes slot and I'm not sure whether I'm thrilled or bummed. The latter is the current version of the former; Girls possesses such a vibrancy in its lyrics and outlook that I wouldn't mind hearing each song on a separate night. Chris, I hope you're ready for a rocking night.

Anyone want to buy a used car? My sister-in-law needs to sell a Hyundai and it would make a great commuter car. This is the official addition to the Craigslist posting.

A couple of school scares: one of my students arrived at last Friday's football game after having consumed two fifths of Vodka. He was arrested and is in detention, which will probably end his high school career at the school. If he's eighteen, it'll be even worse. Another student at another school in the district has been diagnosed with MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant strain of staph infection that is potentially fatal. I can only imagine if it reached our school. Another student who happened to be absent for the entire second half of last quarter conveniently told me late last week that he ended up in County for thirty days. I must have led an extremely sheltered life as a child. I can only imagine.

Check out Eric Alterman's Altercation page from today and you'll see that I am a prophet; One of Alterman's guest posters is beginning an attack on the truthiness of the scholarship of one Victor Davis Hanson. You read it here first, folks, remember you read it first here. :)

Autumn Winds

blow chilly and cold occasionally here in Brentwood. Intermittant rain and sun but overall beautiful fall weather. Good weather for band gigs but that appears to be nowhere on the horizon. First, this.


I just finished viewing Paul McCartney's "Get Back" concert video from his huge 1989-1990 world tour. I wanted to see it so badly. He played to a very packed house at the Berkeley Memorial Stadium in front of 120,000 (I saw Rush for the first time that night). I have the live album that I listened to non-stop in my high school days. I had always wanted to see the Golden Slumbers-Carry That Weight-The End medley and I finally found the show. It's terrible. Well filmed and all but I don't think I've ever seen a more flaccid live performance of a top-notch band. Macca's vocals were surely weak and shot by the time the show's audio was recorded. I'm not naive enough to think that live albums have no studio alterations; of course they do. Unfortunately, this doesn't. Lots of bum notes and double vocals by Hamish Stuart (from Average White Band on bass and guitars). And then there's Linda... I guess it still serves as a document of his comeback but compare this to his output of the early 21st century and you'll see that today's cute Beatle decimates the "Flowers In the Dirt" era myth I'd always loved.

Okay, now that Stephen Colbert is running for president in South Carolina as both a Democrat AND a Republican, can anyone from either party vote for him in the primary?

I'm sorry, but I think she's a hottie. Her hubby's a UCSB grad to boot.

Concord Records will be opening its fifty-year old vault of Montery Jazz Festival recordings. It's like Dick's Picks without six hundred million versions of "Big River" that all sound the same.

Eight days and counting...

More Bruce

A second Oakland show for next Thursday was added and of course, I'm there!!! Back to back nights and while this is expensive, I set aside a little play money from optional work days this summer especially for this!!! I opted for a seat this time in order to have a different experience than the following night's rager in general admission. The band, as it makes its way across the country, is beginning to shake up its setlist a little more. "Backstreets" has been played once already and I'm hoping that he pulls it out in the Bay Area.

After continuing to listen to the new album like it's going out of style, there are two things I can add: the first is how much I really really like it. While I've already stated it, I find the record to be accessible and for more reasons that I originally thought. With that, I said that the seventh song on the record cooked though I thought the lyrics were a tad weak. After grasping the context of the song, I've come to see it as one of the strongest stories on the record. This, the "Catholic" song with its imagery of falling from grace and seeking for redemption is powerful, hooky and altogether solid.

The Boston Red Sox can't seem to get it together against the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe is clobbering the Sox 7 to 3 in the bottom of the 8th of the third game. I don't know why but I'm pulling for the team with the Green Monster. I simply wish to see the AL team win but I should be rooting for the Indians as it's been a long time since they went to the Series.

I'm a bit fed up with politics right now. You know things are bad when Vlad the Impaler travels to Teheran for the first time since Stalin and tells the world that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful. Trust me, I used to head the KGB. I may get in trouble for this one, but what was the House of Representatives thinking in voting to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915? Now? First of all, what is the vote going to change? Why would we attempt to jeopardize our relationship with our only ally bordering Iraq? Now Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq to quash a Kurdish independence movement? We can't define the slaughter in Darfur but with ninety years of hindsight we can see that the Turks' great-grandparents need to be labeled killers. As a student of history and a former resident of the great city of Fresno, California, I have come to appreciate and identify with the history of Armenian Americans. This is not a matter of being racist. This is a matter of pragmatic politics in such a delicate time. Why not bring up the Reign of Terror with France while we're attempting to play 'history referee'? Unless, UNLESS, this is a backhanded Democratic attempt to drive a wedge in the war with Bush. By Deliberately irking U.S. allies, a divided Iraq would bring about a massive change in the nation's status and the American role there. Would it force Bush to listen to opposition? Will this resolution force Iraqi forces to begin finally running their own ship? Will this simply alienate the United States in the region further? I'm not a smart man but I know what foolishness is. This resolution is foolish.

Has anyone seen "Across the Universe"? This appears to be the same cliche-ridden bombast as Moulin Rouge but I still am curious about it. Even the NY'er gave the film props for its visual dynamics and great cameos by Bono and Joe Cocker.

Mr. "Syd Barrett", if you're out there, let me know how the "other" Bruce show sounds!

Presto!

Bruce's latest release, "Magic" (in twenty minutes).

A great, rippin' rock and roll sounding record that is as complex and confusing as The Rising. Already, reviews are torn between those listing it as his greatest since "U.S.A." and those that claim that the music and the message convey different messages. I'm a little in the middle there, but first, a breakdown of each tune?

Radio Nowhere - opening rocker of alienation and detachment, with an alternating minor-/major chord progression reminiscent of Tommy TuTone's 867- song. Pop rock to the max; this will make a dynamic opening number.

You'll Be Comin' Down - the album's "Lucky Town" cousin. More lyrically thoughtful and musically rich than the opener. Great backing vocals from Steve and its slow but solid tempo gives the melancholic lyric power.

Livin' In the Future - the album's "Tenth Avenue/Hungry Heart" number with catchy r&b riffs and Clarence aplenty. First overtly political number of the album that tongue-in-cheek summarizes the Bush Era, as this whole album is about and against. "Hungry Heart" in more than one way; musically, yes but conflicted as well. The classic 1980 song, with its Phil Spector-Top 40 sound with some of the most depressing lyrics in the opening line (sung sing-songy with audience participation and all!): "Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack/I went out for a ride and I never went back." Still good to hear the band rocking. This will be the song with the "public service announcement" that Bruce has become famous over the last couple of tours for.

Your Own Worst Enemy - not sure if this is about Bush or Americans that voted for and supported him. Either way, it's a song of shame and embarrassment. One of the album's many "classic" Spector/Wall of Sound/Born To Run/70s-without-sounding-cliched-or-derivitive songs.

Gypsy Biker - the cousin to The Rising's "Countin' On A Miracle". Song about a family losing a soldier in Iraq and so much more. I haven't quite grasped the power of the metaphor but the album's first short story.

Girls In Their Summer Clothes - possibly my favorite song on the album. This song is "Thunder Road" thirty years later, with an old man still seeking potency and meaning in his life while understanding that he is no longer the king of the hill. Wistful and sad yet hopeful and determined. Typical Bruce. Production and recording make this totally 1961. The only thing missing is Ronnie Spector singing backing vocals. What if Phil Spector recorded a Beach Boys' tune? Well, this is it, except with the master lyricist capturing every aging man's fears and wisdom.

I'll Work For Your Love - the album's most Catholic song (lyrically) with a very cool nod to "Incident on 57th Street". Beautiful piano, chorus vocals and yearning in the main character's voice seeking connection with the object of his heart. Bruce's secular Catholicism reappearing in the fourth consecutive album, this song is a true keeper though some of the lyrics aren't his strongest.

Magic - still working this song out. Who is the con-man magician here? I think it's Bush. Powerful, if so, in that all the audience needs to do is follow the illusionist blindly devoted and unquestioningly. All will work in the end, even as I saw you in half as you smile from ear to ear. Quite powerful, even as the music is near-funeral dirge. A hint of "I'm On Fire" and "Secret Garden".

Last To Die - Quoting Senator John Kerry's presidential position on Iraq. Painful song with contrasting metaphors - the killing of people and the mistaken reason for doing so next to a family driving through the American desert lost and nowhere near its destination.

Long Walk Home - the album's best song and one of Bruce's strongest. Directed at the Bush Administration's deception of the American people and the nation's failure to represent the ideals of what millions (possibly billions) of people see in the nation. The words on the base of the new colossus are betrayed by those in search of empire and control; where can the concepts and precepts of truth, justice, faith and freedom be found in a nation that has chosen to abandon them for bloodlust? The most powerful verse of the entire album: "You know that flag flying over the courthouse/means certain things are set in stone/who we are, what we'll do and what we won't." Powerful rocker with powerful emotion. Maybe a national "Backstreets"?

Devil's Arcade - still trying to figure out this metaphor as well, but references to sand and the desert don't put this story in Biblical times. There's certainly no redemption at this point, no promised land. Bruce saves that for another song from another time in his career.

Terry's Song (hidden track) - simple elegy for a fallen friend. Not meant to be a classic but a goodbye love letter. One of this song's strongest suits is the lack of heavy handed production from Brendan O'Brien. I've just about had it with him. Go and make some more 90s grunge records and give me a producer that can make Bruce's vocals intelligible. "Girls" is nearly garbled in the Wall of Sound, which shows that only a few choice producers know how to capture the sound. O'Brien gave us multi-layered The Rising, Devils and Dust and now this album, which have defined Bruce's album sound for this decade. Time to move on, Bruce, and give Steve a chance to produce the next one.

This album is not an E Street Band record, though all of the musicians play on the tracks. This is Tunnel of Love on E Street; a solo record with Bruce on the majority of instruments and the boys as hired hands. Patti only sings backup and yet can barely be heard on most of the tracks that include her. Lyrically, this is "Lucky Town", an album too often ignored but for the right reasons; the intense emotional outpouring of a man and not a storyteller. What we get here is an angry but personal Bruce. With that, either listeners "get it" or they don't; I do, therefore I love the songs. Others might not grasp the message of the songs or their meanings. That's what brings so many comparisons to "U.S.A." as well; great pop-rock but songs that could possibly be miscontrued as either lazy or meaningless. Go and relisten to "Dancing In the Dark" or "Glory Days" and wonder why we felt so good listening to those songs nearly twenty-five years ago. We were happy then like we're confused now: both albums perfectly capture the national mood. Ol' Ronnie in the 80s made us feel good, whether we understood what the hell we were doing; "U.S.A." questioned that lyrically but we be-bopped along with smiles on our faces and fists in the air. Not that the record lacked its anthemic hope. It did, just against all that we thought it represented. "Magic" captures the paradoxes and hypocrisies of the Bush Era: this is a great and terrible nation both for its symbolism and actions. Whether that terrible greatness this nation projects is benign or malignant is yet to be settled. This nation used to be Luke, Han and Obi-Wan fighting the evil empire; now, we seem to be Darth Sidious propping up his seconds in the form of misguided or puppet leaders for the sake of the nation's post-Soviet one-world superpower status. The smell of sulfur may just be traceable.

Must go to tend to Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Love "Magic". I once said that "Devils and Dust" was a minor record and months later came to regret that statement. I'm leaving final judgment for later. I can't help but play this new one several times a day. It's a great record. I truly love this. How great? Who cares at this point. It's simply another record by our generation's Walt Whitman and even Bruce's weakest material is better than most of what's out there.

Here are my thoughts two and a half weeks before I (hopefully) get into the pit for the Oakland show:
Bruce is still full of fire. He's got another, better record in him for the E Streeters.
Patti's new record, in light of "Magic" is even better than I first thought. Bruce should take note.
Little Steven's strong presence is much appreciated and greatly missed.
The next album needs to be recorded live in Bruce's barn and full of burners that (meaningful or not) show that rock and roll isn't about age.
The band is a collective one hundred pounds heavier than The Rising.
The band will have found its footing by the time of my show.
I won't get into the pit but can at least jump around like an idiot. I haven't had floor seats in an arena show in over a decade.
I've been pretty negative on the production value of the last few records. I hold to that position. Bruce, grab Steven and Jon and cut the next record like "Darkness" or "The River".
Last night's '60 Minutes' stunk in failing to present the latest album in its historical context, both for the band and Bush Era. Maybe the media is just tired of artistic protest or reporting about the hatred of the Bush Administration. Maybe I'm so fed up with things that I can't see the forest for the trees myself. Or maybe, just maybe, what I see is truth about our times. Darkness on the edge of our shining city?

October Road

Ah, the tenth month brings tidings of great weather and holiday previews, while reading the newspaper brings more headaches. First, this:

Why San Francisco, which is a pretty bizarre city, rocks at least once a year. I wish I could go, but crowds are expected to be 100,000. Crazy! And to think that all of this is free!

I am currently reading Jeffrey Toobin's "The Nine", an interesting read on the Rehnquist Court of the 1990s and early 00s. More on that.

Now is not the time to review Bruce's "Magic" but I will say this; I can't NOT listen to the album at least twice daily. "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is the coolest song I've heard in a long time. More on this as well, though I must voice my biggest complaint in that the production quality is, as the last couple of Brendan O'Brien jobs, muddied and overproduced. I'm joining the bandwagon to say that Little Steven produces the album that supposedly is due in the Spring.

And yet again. Victor Davis Hanson continues to espouse illogical arguments about politics. The more he talks, the more I question sending anyone I know and love to Stanford (I know that's just as illogical, but off-the-cuff statements are allowed to be; not Op-ed articles). Hanson wants to equate Columbia University and certain populations of Stanford in the same "lunatic" fringe:

"This week, Columbia University allowed Iran's loony President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be a lecturer on its campus.

by his very presence on an Ivy League stage, Ahmadinejad showed the world that a top American university considers his odious views worth showcasing."

Sorry, Vic, but last time I checked, everyone here in this country has the right to his or her own opinion, regardless of how educated or stupid it is. Meanwhile, what are Hanson's thoughts about Bush and Cheney's lies regarding Iraq? One nation's war criminal...

"Take what happened this month at the University of California, Davis. Under pressure from campus feminists, the university withdrew an invitation to former Harvard University President Larry Summers to speak at a board of regents dinner."

Now Hanson derides people speaking their minds who oppose the presence of someone they find offensive. Of course, I can't fall into the trap of equating Larry Summers with the president of a terrorist nation but we also can't equate Larry Summers with the president of a terrorist nation. Shouldn't Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be able to address the world community since it is a lack of dialogue that has ratcheted tensions to a boiling point? If he wishes to engage the United States in either a war of words or peace talks, only diplomacy will allow for the two nations to establish future relations. If (or when) war occurs with Iran, Ahmadinejad's Columbia address will be looked upon as justification by the U.S. to fight. "Who comes to a nation and insults it while expecting peace to come about?" is something we should ask instead of why a college allows someone whom we disagree speak his mind.

Then, the real kicker: "Over at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, where I work, the recent decision to invite former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to serve on one of its task forces on ideology and terror as a distinguished visiting fellow caused furor on campus." Hanson, who goes on to describe Rumsfeld's career and attack those who petitioned Rumsfeld's appointment at the university. Hanson fails to see a single, hour-long (at most) speaking engagement and a full-time, salaried position. Rumsfeld wasn't invited to speak at a graduation ceremony, he was hired to serve on a task force. To create and influence policy. To make decisions for the future of the nation. The fact that he took this nation as prepared into Iraq as the Russians into World War I will be his legacy. That portions of student tuition may go into paying the man's salary should be considered if thousands protest the university's hire. One action was open to the court of world public opinion; a second would simply disappear into a morass of secrecy and backroom boilerplate. I could attack Hanson's line of logic but this thread is getting repetitive enough.

Larry Craig's not quitting and apparently not innocent, either.

Senator from New Mexico, Pete Dominici, is retiring.

Barack for the Supreme Court?

Hillary Clinton was in Lafayette, California, stroking big donors for lots of money. She happened to do so at a private residence on my mother-in-law's street! She called to say that a nice man from the secret service was there to case her property and make sure everything was okay. Too funny! I'm still out as to whom I support. I should probably first register as a Democrat, right?

Did I mention that "Magic" rocks? "Long Walk Home" is another killer tune. Can't wait for the show. Pit chances look pretty good but I'm not holding my breath.